Life happens... and there's usually a soundtrack to it if you look hard enough.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Ear on TV: Week of 12.27.10: Live at Daryl's House

Hall & Oates - Live at Daryl's House on WGN New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve has always seemed to suffer from inflated expectations -- so much pressure on 'blowing out' the past year to welcome in the new. For those either stuck at home or taking the event in stride with more tempered expectations, there are plenty of options on TV this year to play in the background during your New Year's Eve Bridge Tournament Blowout 2011! (or whatever you're calling it).

Top of the list is the surprisingly successful monthly web series from Hall & Oate's Daryl Hall, Live from Daryl's House, which is crossing over to TV on Chicago's WGN. For the New Year's Eve special, Hall is culling together a best of from the critically acclaimed series, featuring collaborations with artists like his old buddy John Oates, legends Todd Rundgren, Smokey Robinson, Toots & the Maytals and even some younger artists like Neon Trees and Sharon Jones. Hall likens his show to a sort of response to the Elvis Costello-hosted Spectacle, a show frequently featured in this space. Said Hall recently, “I love Elvis, but his show is more like Inside the Actors Studio. My show is the exact opposite of that. There’s no audience, and it’s balls-to-the-wall craziness and chaos.” WGN will be airing the special from 11:00PM-1:00AM (EST), and if it goes well, the series may make the move to television a more permanent thing.

Your other musical options for the evening vary enough to satisfy just about any party-at-home's taste. New Year's Eve with Carson Daly, may have the more interesting lineup this year, featuring performances from Lil' Wayne and the very hot Nicki Minaj while Daly interviews Bono and The Edge about their experience on Broadway with the calamity that is Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve with Ryan Seacrest spices things up a bit with Ke$ha, Drake, Far*East Movement, Mike Posner and Avril Lavigne. MTV will play it for laughs and/or spectacle, with comedienne Whitney Cummings hosting a countdown with Snooki inside the ball this year and the rest of the cast of Jersey Shore running around Times Square. Speaking of spectacle, HBO will be running the Bette Midler special The Showgirl Must Go On.

Finally, power pop legends Cheap Trick has been playing the rock for over 36 years now, finally garnering them a performance on the PBS concert staple Austin City Limits. The Rockford, IL quartet's 12 song set list features nearly all their hits, including favorites "Surrender" and "I Want You to Want Me." Absent is longtime drummer Bun E. Carlos, who is still in the band but taking a break as the touring drummer -- the sticks remain in the family with guitarist Rick Nielsen's son Dax beating the skins as his temporary replacement. It's not a bad way to start 2011, really, repeating the Cheap Trick mantra of, "We're all alright, we're all alright."